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instance, the Nuclear-daughter (14%) shows a significant share of parents
(mother = 0.37 and father = 0.21). In contrast, the Restricted nuclear
(5%) is confined to the partner and children with nobody else included
as family.
The Siblings cluster (12%) is composed of individuals who mainly
focus on their sisters (M = 1.16) and brothers (M = 0.42), but also on
siblings in-law (M = 0.25). The parents (mother = 0.41 and father = 0.22)
and the partner (M = 0.61) may also appear in this cluster. The Beanpole
(8%) cluster is a multigenerational arrangement composed of individuals
from three different generations in descending line: the partner
(M = 0.77); their children (son = 0.81 and daughter = 0.93); the children
in-law (M = 0.74); and the grandchildren (M = 1.38). The Couple cluster
(9%) is composed of individuals who restricted their network to the part-
ner (M = 1.00). Thus, the confinement to the conjugal dyad led us to
label this type of network as the Couple network. These respondents did
not mention anyone else beyond their partner. The importance of this
type of network, together with the types linked to the nuclear family of
couples with children thus reveals an important trend: the fact that the
networks linked to the central dyads of couples and couples with children
(Couple, Nuclear-daughter, Nuclear-son and Restricted nuclear) represent,
at least for the birth cohorts under analysis, the predominant form of the
as-family network. The last cluster is composed of individuals who did
not consider any of their close persons as family (6%). We labelled this
cluster the No-family network.
Shaping Factors: The Impact of National
Context, Gender and Birth Cohort
Analysis of the as-family networks by country, gender, and birth cohort
reveals some diversity across the three countries and highlights the dif-
ferential impact of these variables.
Distribution by country, drawing on a simple cross-tabulation, reveals
five main trends (Table 4.6). First, although the types of network linked
to the central nuclei of couples and couples with children predominate in
all three countries (when aggregated: 38.4% in Portugal, 43.3% in
K. Wall et al.